Jan Lenica: Illustration and Art

We loved it, but didn’t really know anything about it. Yesterday, we bought a stack of DIY magazines from a charity shop. ‘The Knack’ features many things such as how to replumb your toilet in, build a modern extension and fix your staircase… how is this relevant? Well, on one of the pages was a picture of our print! And it looked exactly like this:

Jan Lenica - Olympishe Speile Munchen 1972

I found this picture here, and it’s exactly the same as ours! Thanks to the comments on that blog, I could then find the designer of it: Jan Lenica.

Jan Lenica was a Polish cartoonist and graphic designer, creating this picture as part of the campaign for the 1972 Olympic games in Munich.

Lenica’s work is quite eye-popping: full of colour, wavy lines and slightly psychedelic ideas:

Jan Lenica - AktJan Lenica

This style – with the thick wavy lines in black and bold colours, is my favourite, but it seems that Lenica was incredibly well-known and prolific, creating posters and artwork for a whole array of events:

Jan Lenica - Swan LakeJan LenicaJan Lenica - Le Sevilla

In addition to this amazing poster art, Lenica was a film maker. Luckily, some of his work can be found on Youtube:

From a chance find in a German charity shop, to another chance spot in a 1970s British DIY magazine… Jan Lenica, our new favourite designer.